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Anand Chandrasekher, the man who was responsible for many of Intel's low-power mobile chip initiatives, has joined Qualcomm as its new chief marketing officer.

Chandrasekher was a 24-year veteran of Intel, but resigned his position as general manager of the company's Ultra Mobility Group in March 2011, saying he wished "to pursue other interests."

While at Intel, Chandrasekher first helped to develop the Pentium 4 processor, then later led the teams that produced the Atom processor line and the power-sipping Centrino chipset for notebooks.

One thing he never managed to achieve, however, was to see an Intel processor powering a mainstream consumer mobile phone. Intel has been promising mobiles based on its chip designs for years, but that market remains dominated by chips based on designs by UK-based ARM Holdings.

At the time Chandrasekher left Intel, David Perlmutter, the company's executive vice president and general manager of its Architecture Group, said Chipzilla planned to ship a phone that year. No such luck.

Atom-based phones did finally begin to emerge earlier this year, but so far they've failed to distinguish themselves among a sea of ARM-based competitors.

Qualcomm is a major ARM licensee, and its ARM-based Snapdragon processors are among the leading chips in the mobile market, a fact that promises to pit Chandrasekher head to head with his old company. At Qualcomm, Chandrasekher will report directly to Steve Mollenkopf, the chipmaker's president and COO.

"His extensive experience in marketing and management makes Anand well-suited to help grow Qualcomm's communications and marketing efforts across the world and to amplify our consumer offerings to new audiences," Mollenkopf said in a canned statement. ®